BBC Trust approves plan to scrap BBC Three and put it online

On the plus side: more BBC1 dramas!

The BBC Trust has provisionally approved plans to take BBC Three off the air and making it an online-only service in January 2016.

The proposal was made back in 2014 and invited backlash from show producers and viewers who wanted to keep the channel alive, but it seems like their efforts were to no avail.

Cutting the service will save the BBC £30m a year, some of which will be put into the BBC1 drama budget. However, the Trust says it will consider running the new web service alongside the existing TV channel for a while before the latter is phased out.

The BBC Trust told TechRadar that this is just a preliminary approval and that it has asked the BBC to meet a number of conditions, so it's not 100% set in stone yet.

"Those aged 16 to 34 are already far more likely than any other group to use online video services and the BBC is right to anticipate the need to serve this audience in new ways," the Trust stated in a release.

The Trust also announced it had rejected a proposal to launch a BBC One+1 channel, stating that it does not add public value.